San Francisco Vacation Easter Weekend Cont.

After the tea garden, we walked over to the famous Haight - Ashbury corner where the hippy movement was supposed to have started.

There were some very odd shops around and lots of colorful storefronts to see.

We stopped at a little restaurant I was told about called Cha cha cha and we shared some really tasty tapas.

From sauteed button mushrooms to fried caramelized plantains it was very yummy.

I also knew that the "painted ladies" weren't far away from here, so we set off to find them.

This is a photo that people everywhere recognize as part of San Francisco heritage. They used this photo in the opening credits for Full House and I always remember that and wanting to ride a trolley.

The houses are heritage houses and the owners are required to keep them looking this way.

We walked around quite a big looking for them and the day was such that we kept putting on and taking off our jackets. Hot, cold, hot, cold
We were looking for a washroom in the park and came upon all these shoes that someone was planting flowers in.

Pairs and pairs of recycled shoes, it was very strange and someone was obviously taking care of them.
That night we went to Little Italy for dinner. I love Little Italy! There were tons of restaurants with little outside tables with bread, balsamic and evoo on them. So good! We picked a place that the cab driver said had the best pizza and had some very good thin crust pizza and another really nice bottle of wine.
We then walked around and found a little Italian bakery open late with cappuchino, lattes and we had a dessert. yum!
The next day, I wanted togo to Japantown. The Cherry Blossom festival happened to be going on, which was a good thing because there wasn't much to Japantown without it.
There were Haiko drummers, a cherry blossom princess contest and tons of things to buy and food to eat. The lines to some of the food tents went on forever! They were also selling cold japanese beer.
After this we got a cab down to Ghirardelli Square where I was promised very good icecream by a friend.

Ghirardelli are the chocolate squares and the company is San Francisco based.
The chocolaes were sold all over the place and are good souvenirs, but the icecream was so, so and cost $8! We shared one and were not impressed.

It was Easter weekend though and the lines were ridonculous.

Everyone had their screaming kids too, so Mike and I were pretty happy to get out of there.

We walked down to a part near Fisherman's Wharf and took a nap before we had to walk over to the cruise. We were beat and to be honest, I was sick. I had a head cold and I was not really looking forward to the tour of Alcatraz anymore, but felt a little better after a nap.
We got in line for the tour ship and there were lots of people.

They also took photos of each passengar group with an Alcatraz background that they would try to sell later to the passengers. Mike and I skipped this, but this took quite a bit of time to take all these people's photos.

The night tour was cool, but there are less departing ferry's from the island so you have to be on there for 2 hours minimum! I felt like I was doing time! but only because I was feeling pretty miserable and it was a pretty chilly night too.
However, the tour was really cool. The time did go by fairly quickly. You put on this tape player sort of thing and it directs you around the prison and shows you points of interest.
This is from the inside of a solitary confinement cell. Of course the door is open, but the doors were very thick steal and the inmate would be in complete darkness.

Here is what one of the normal cells looked like.

After the tour was over we went back to our hotel and I climbed into bed and got some sleep. We had a morning flight and were back in Vancouver in the afternoon.

Chris kindly picked us up a the airport and we went home and saw our puppies. He had done a great job of looking after my babies. Well that was San Francisco. It does not beat Vancouver. I'm not a fan of the hills and wind and the buildings are all older and there are no condos. The rents are crazy too and that is from coming from someone who lives in Vancouver, so it is pretty bad. Anyway, nice city to visit, but don't think I'd live there.